MANILA: Washington will increase its military assistance to the Philippines by about two-thirds, helping its oldest security ally in Asia defend vast maritime borders against what it sees as Chinese assertiveness.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario yesterday said the United States had increased its military assistance package from $30m next fiscal year to about $50m, the highest level since US troops returned to the Philippines in 2000.
Rosario also said that US spy planes were providing crucial intelligence on Chinese military activities in disputed areas of the South China Sea.
“For military financing, it’s an allocation that is worked out by the US Congress, and its usually for acquisition and maintenance,” Del Rosario told reporters.
Rosario said the Philippines may acquire a third Hamilton-class cutter to boost its efforts to patrol sea borders in view of recurring standoffs with China over territory in the South China Sea.
The Hamilton-class high endurance cutter is the largest and newest warship in the Philippine Navy. The first two ships were acquired free of charge under the excess defence articles, under which Washington provides old equipment no longer in active use. But $25m was spent to refurbish them.
The second cutter is to arrive next week in Subic Bay, a former US Navy base 50km northwest of Manila, where it will be repainted before joining its sister ship on patrols.
US Navy P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft frequently fly over areas that the Philippines says are within its legal territory but where China has deployed military vessels, Del Rosario said.
“I think it’s of significant importance for us,” he told reporters, when asked about the value of the information gathered by the spy planes.
“We do have an interest in terms of what is going on with our exclusive economic zone, within our continental shelf, and we want to know if there are any intrusions.”
China claims nearly all of the sea, even waters close to the Philippines and other neighbours.
When asked if the spy plane surveillance on China may jar with the United States’ insistence of neutrality in the maritime dispute, Del Rosario emphasised the close US-Philippine ties.
He pointed out the allies had a mutual defence treaty, which calls on each party to help the other in times of external aggression.
He also said the United States was keen to maintain peace in the Asia-Pacific and ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, home to some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
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